Development of Human Gastric Process Computational Models for the Design of Foods with Optimised Nutrient Uptake and Satiety

人类消化道内食物结构的演变对个体的新陈代谢和健康有着巨大的影响。食物分解与血糖指数密切相关，同时也影响食欲调节。对食物结构力学、胃肠（GI）道运动和消化之间关系的机械理解仍然缺乏。具体而言，由于胃蠕动波的机械负荷的影响下的食物结构的分解，从胃液和通过酶作用的化学降解相关的水合作用需要进行研究。该项目旨在开发一种用于食品设计的新型计算平台，以控制食品分解和营养物质的生物可及性，从而提高消化效率;这项研究的成果将对食品工业和公众健康产生重大影响。这将是软固体小组目前工作的继续（例如Skeletotis等人，2020，Eulerian-Lagrangian finite element modeling of food flow-fracture in the stomach to engineer digestion，Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies，66，1466-8564）。

The evolution of food structure within the human digestive tract influences drastically the metabolism and health of individuals. Food breakdown is strongly linked to glycaemic index, whilst it also impacts appetite regulation. Mechanistic understanding of the relationship between food structural mechanics, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract motility and digestion is still lacking. Specifically, the breakdown of the food structure under the effect of the mechanical loads due to the gastric peristaltic waves, the associated hydration from gastric fluids and the chemical degradation through the enzymatic action need to be investigated. The project aims at developing a novel computational platform for food product design to control food disintegration and nutrient bio-accessibility and consequently the digestion efficiency; the output from this research will have a great impact on both the food industry and public health. It will be a continuation of current work in the Soft Solids group (e.g. Skamniotis et al., 2020, Eulerian-Lagrangian finite element modelling of food flow-fracture in the stomach to engineer digestion, Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 66, 1466-8564).